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Albert Zinn
BBS Member
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Posted: Tue May 19th, 2009 08:53 pm |
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Friends:
I have a chance to buy a very nice "D" grade 12 ga lifter gun that suffers from two ailments:
1. The barrels are pitted fairly extensively, though not deeply.
2. The barrels are slightly off-face i.e. a sheet of tablet paper will slip in the closed breech.
Let me add the gun is a #2 frame, and consequently the barrels appear to be quite thick. I am reasonably confident that the worst of the pitting can be polished out and still maintain adequate wall thickness.
My question is: is this desirable to do, or better to leave as they are and just shoot?
Do we have people who we recommend for this work?
Regarding the barrels being slightly off-face - again, is it best to leave alone and just shoot?
I know this is not much to go on - advice will be appreciated.
Thanks,
AL Zinn
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Albert E. Zinn
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Dean Romig
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Posted: Tue May 19th, 2009 09:23 pm |
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Al, I would concern myself more with getting the gun back on-face. In the off-face condition you describe, shooting it will only make it worse.
For a shooter and being a 2-frame I wouldn't be concerned with extensive but shallow pitting as long as the pitting isn't deep enough to compromise the gun's safety.
I was in Painesville two weeks ago when I hunted my cousin's farm over in Jefferson. Time limitations with a bunch of relatives prevented me from looking you up.
Dean
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Albert Zinn
BBS Member
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Posted: Tue May 19th, 2009 09:43 pm |
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Dean:
What is involved in getting it back on face? - if it's a $1000 bill, the gun is not worth it.
Hopefully, next time you are in Painesville, you can call me. 440-413-0144. I look forward to it.
Tks,
AL Zinn
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Albert E. Zinn
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Dave Suponski
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Posted: Tue May 19th, 2009 09:50 pm |
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| Al,I would think somewhere in $200-$300 dollar range would do it.Depending on the smith of course.
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Dave....
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Harry Collins
PGCA Member
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Posted: Tue May 19th, 2009 10:38 pm |
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Al,
There is a $5 fix to putting a Parker back on face. It is temporary, but it works great and I have several parkers that sport it. It was discussed before so I will try to find it and bring it forward.
Kindest, Harry
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Dean Romig
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Posted: Wed May 20th, 2009 02:19 am |
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Al, I will call you the next time I'm in the area - problem is, I don't think that will be for a year or two.
As Harry says, the inexpensive route is to shim the hinge pin. As Dave alludes, a more permanent fix is considerably more expensive and there a number of different procedures to accomplish this. I have had no experience with this fix so can't recommend anyone to do it. Maybe someone will share their experiences with us on who does this work.
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Jack Lester
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Posted: Wed May 20th, 2009 11:26 am |
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Me too Dean. I'm only a few minutes from Al. Some of my wife's relatives live in Jefferson. At the least we could all tip a couple and talk Parker.
So Al, you know who got the lifter at the Burton sale Sunday? Who ever got it has a nice one. It would have been mine but I couldn't get on the site. Jack
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Harry Collins
PGCA Member
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Posted: Wed May 20th, 2009 11:55 am |
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Some years ago there was a description of how to shim the forward lug of a Parker to bring it back on face. The post was on this site or over on the Double Gun Journal and included pictures. It spoke of the joint roll on the hing pin being harder than the lug. Thus the lug was the part that wore. I think I remember correctly that Parker had joint rolls in various sizes to compensate for wear. Does anyone else remember the post and where it was?
Harry
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Albert Zinn
BBS Member
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Posted: Wed May 20th, 2009 12:45 pm |
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Jack:
I do not know who ended up with the gun. I decided not to bid on it. The barrels had some deep pitting, but I suppose that is usual. The gun was straight and honest, but was a lower grade and lacked condition. If the barrels, or wood had been nicer, I would have been more interested.
It went for $620 - a nice price for an honest lifter.
AL
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Albert E. Zinn
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Jack Lester
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Posted: Wed May 20th, 2009 03:31 pm |
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| Al, you are right. Lots of barrel wall thickness to deal with the pits. Nice tight gun with a ball grip and good case on the water table and front iron. That's one that just begged for some restoration. Probably a good thing I couldn't bid. I thought that first Krag was a very good buy. Jack
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Dave Miles
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Posted: Wed May 20th, 2009 04:25 pm |
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Albert Zinn wrote: Jack:
I do not know who ended up with the gun. I decided not to bid on it. The barrels had some deep pitting, but I suppose that is usual. The gun was straight and honest, but was a lower grade and lacked condition. If the barrels, or wood had been nicer, I would have been more interested.
It went for $620 - a nice price for an honest lifter.
AL
Al,
I forgot about the auction closing time, and missed it by 5 minutes. Otherwise that 12 gauge lifter would be next to the 16 right now. 
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Albert Zinn
BBS Member
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Posted: Wed May 20th, 2009 04:57 pm |
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Dave:
I'm sorry that you missed it - it would have been a good mate for the other gun - I didn't think of that.
You should have called me - I had the gun in my hand several times
They'll be others,
Al
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Albert E. Zinn
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Pat Dugan
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| Location: | Albany, Georgia USA |
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Posted: Thu May 21st, 2009 04:11 am |
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Go to the auto parts store and buy a feeler gauge kit that has about 20 different pieces of thin staineless steel. Try the thinest piece first and cut it to fit with a sharp pair of sizzors or use metal shears then shim the hinge pin. Keep trying bigger pieces until you are satisfied with the gun being on face. The only disadvantage is if you take the barrels off it will fall out unless you super glue it. It works great but it is not for the Parker purist Cost $8.00
PDD
Last edited on Thu May 21st, 2009 02:24 pm by Pat Dugan
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Albert Zinn
BBS Member
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Posted: Thu May 21st, 2009 10:39 am |
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Friends:
It seems that the simple brass shim will work nicely as an inexpensive fix to get the gun back shooting.
I'm curious as to what is involved in a permanent fix. Does a smith machine a new oversize hinge pin? I have never removed a Parker hingepin - is the actual hinge bearing diameter section less than the overall outside diameter of the cross hole?
If so, it would be possible to machine up a new hingepin with the bearing OD however many thousands larger needed to compensate for wear.
If that were not possible, the only other thing I can think of would be to add metal to the mating barrel lug surface (perhaps by spray welding) and then re-machine that suface down to a matching tight fit with the hinge pin - definitely not a job for the amateur.
Perhaps someone who knows can tell us how they did it.
Thanks,
Al Zinn
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Albert E. Zinn
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Don Kaas
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Posted: Thu May 21st, 2009 11:27 am |
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| The best possible fix for putting a Parker back on face, IMHO is the use of precision micro welding on the barrel hook and then machining the surface in a purpose made jig to insure perfect alignment and fit. Russ Bickel (and a few other gunsmiths) have been using this technique for a number of years using special purpose micro welding machines. Russ has done at least a couple of dozen Parkers using this method and recently put the second set of Whitworth barrels of my Purdey two barrel set back on face. The repair is invisible with zero heat distortion or discoloring. Using this technology also allows much easier fitting of orphan barrels, dolls heads and repair of pits and breech faces as well as the fitting of hammerless barrels to hammer Parkers. If Parkers are so "special", they deserve to be repaired properly. Last edited on Thu May 21st, 2009 11:29 am by Don Kaas
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Albert Zinn
BBS Member
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Posted: Thu May 21st, 2009 12:37 pm |
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Don:
Thanks for the info. Do you have Russ Bickel's contact info?
Al Zinn
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Albert E. Zinn
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Dean Romig
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Posted: Thu May 21st, 2009 01:16 pm |
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Albert Zinn wrote: Don:
Thanks for the info. Do you have Russ Bickel's contact info?
Al Zinn
Ditto that request Don.
Dean
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David Purnell
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Posted: Thu May 21st, 2009 05:16 pm |
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Don, have you gotten any use from the Rocklin Moldmender you got about a year ago, in regards to this kind of repair?
Dave
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Don Kaas
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Posted: Thu May 21st, 2009 10:45 pm |
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| Russ has done wonders with the Rocklin and has been able to bring in house a lot of jobs that used to have to be farmed out. I wish we had one decades ago. Fear no pit or loose double!
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